A story on foliomag.com says rival US newspapers have begun sharing stories to cut costs. There’s some logic to this. News stories are pretty portable. In their purest, unvarnished form they should be free of editorialising and bias; merely a logical presentation of raw facts: something happened; this is the result; this is what one side side; this is what the other side said. Pretty simple really.
But the story goes one step further, suggesting that magazines could also share content. I’m less convinced about this, although it does depend on the type of magazine. The example they use is Time and Newsweek – two weekly news magazines. Again, we’re talking about news content, and again, I don’t really see a problem. But can you imagine, for example, Marie Claire and Madison running the same story in the same on-sale? Or Men’s Style and GQ just agreeing to run the same fashion shoot?
The difference between monthly mags and daily newspapers is the level of craft that goes into each. Newspapers are all about file and forget; magazine staff – from writers, to designers, to sub editors – will agonise over every word and every page, tweaking, adjusting, second-guessing over a period of weeks and sometimes months. It’s that process that gives each magazine its originality; that makes people choose one title over another very similar title.
Content sharing? I just don’t see it.
nude media 